In the prior art, active semiconductor devices may be isolated using a traditional p/n junction or by fabricating a semiconductor on oxide. Creating an isolation layer for active diamond electronics using traditional p/n junction or fabricating a semiconductor on oxide has challenges. Even though those techniques are widely practiced in silicon and other semiconductors, it is still very challenging to produce a p/n junction in diamond, especially in selective device areas. There is also no suitable solution to create diamond on dielectric structures like silicon on insulator (SOI) for device isolation. Another prior art approach is to grow diamond nanowire through various growth techniques similar to carbon nanotube growth. However, this approach also has challenges in precisely placing the wires on the desired area for further manufacturing. Another technique is to transfer a diamond thin film to another substrate to create nanowire devices; however, this is a complicated method and is not suitable for large scale production.
T. M. Babinec, J. M. HausmannBirgit, M. Khan, Y. Zhang, J. R. Maze, P. R. Hemmer, et al., “A diamond nanowire single-photon source,” Nat Nano, vol. 5, pp. 195-199, 03//print 2010 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,415,640, issued on Apr. 9, 2013, which are incorporated herein by reference, use microfabrication techniques to create vertical nanowires. The wires are not electrically isolated from the substrate, and electrons and holes, if available, are free to move around. Hence, the individual wires are not isolated from each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,200,378, issued on Dec. 1, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes growing diamond nanowires via chemical vapor deposition. However, this method is not suitable for large scale semiconductor device manufacturing.
What is needed is an improved method for making diamond nanowires for various electronic and photonic applications. The embodiments of the present disclosure answer these and other needs.